Question 3. What are the Disadvantages of Medical Student Interpretation?
Despite its benefits, interpretation by medical students has also been found to carry certain disadvantages.
3.1 Medical student interpretation carries disadvantages for students themselves. A potential disadvantage reported in the literature was that during an encounter, students may focus more on interpretation than clinical learning, especially in high-stakes or complex situations.25, 33, 41 Furthermore, medical students have demanding schedules which limit their availability to participate in an interpretation training program. Students also reported not having formal medical terminology training in their mother tongues.41 The literature shows that students without formal training frequently found themselves in uncomfortable scenarios where they had to interpret sensitive and/or critical information while feeling unprepared.32, 39, 41 Moreover, attending physicians are often not aware of students’ interpretation skills and linguistic limitations, possibly increasing the burden for students who are hesitant to refuse the task. 32, 41 In fact, a significant proportion of students encountered challenging situations where they felt uncomfortable yet obligated to interpret.32, 33
3.2 Medical student interpretation carries disadvantages for patients and healthcare teams. Concerns were identified for patients and healthcare teams, often in the context of untrained medical students, focusing specifically on insufficient medical vocabulary, lack of fluency, and poor cultural competency. 32, 33, 41These issues may lead to misinterpretation, omission, and truncated patient responses.35 Another disadvantage for ad hoc student interpretation is the possible trivialization of the importance of language concordance: while students help address the demand for more interpretation services, their lack of training and qualifications may be regarded as devaluing professional medical interpretation.19, 32 Bilingual students did demonstrate an interest in acquiring training in medical interpretation, however maintenance of qualifications is also an important concern.33 Ambiguity regarding the medical student’s role was also expressed. For example, challenges exist for students, patients, and physicians in distinguishing between students’ clinical and interpretation roles, increasing the risk of interpretation errors.8, 15, 33, 41